The themes of Sickness Essay Example for Free

The themes of Sickness Essay Mary Shelleys infamous literary piece, Frankenstein, is a name that anyone who has ever read a book would be familiar with. Several themes appear throughout the novel, some obvious, some subtle. One of the overlooked but nevertheless significant themes is societys duty to help the poor, the sick, and the ostracized. Multiple imperative events which occurred throughout the piece emphasizes on this theme: Victor Frankensteins mother aiding the poor and sick; Henry Clervals intense care of Victor; and Captain Robert Walton taking Victor aboard and nursing him back to health. Firstly, Victor Frankensteins mother powerfully demonstrates this theme when she regularly visits the poor and performs good deeds on behalf of the impoverished and downtrodden. She further exemplifies her kindness when she and her husband adopt Elizabeth into their family, and take in Justine, the servant girl. Moreover, when Elizabeth catches scarlet fever, a deadly and contagious disease, Mrs. Frankenstein throws her safety away to focus on nursing Elizabeth back to health. Secondly, when Victor becomes ill from troubling events, Henry Clerval tends to him for over several months, helping Victor get through his difficult times. During all that time Henry was my only nurse. [ ] He knew that I could not have a more kind and attentive nurse than himself; and instead of doing harm, he performed the kindest action that he could towards [me] (Shelley ). When one compares Clerval with Victor, one can see that Clerval understands the importance of caring for his fellow human beings, while Victor selfishly ignores others to conduct his own experiment, which he in the end, abandons. There had been no events in which Victor was the one nursing somebody else, yet there were numerous cases of the reverse; where somebody was nursing him. Lastly, not only does Henry tend to Victor, but after Victor tracks the monster to the Arctic regions, he falls deathly ill. When Captain Robert Walton spots a sick, dying man, he takes him aboard and selflessly nurses him-just as Ms. Frankenstein nursed Elizabeth. To put it briefly, one of the most overlooked yet important themes that most characters are contributing in is the theme of societys duty to support and care for the poor, the neglected, and the unhealthy. This theme can be noted by various events which occurs throughout the novel, such as Ms. Frankensteins care for Elizabeth and both Henry and Waltons care for Victor. Each character in the novel can be indirectly-if not directly-connected to Frankensteins theme of tending to the sick. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus. Minneapolis: Stone Arch, 2008. Print.

Diversity within Society Essay Example for Free

Diversity within Society Essay This essay will discuss some of the changes brought to Britain by immigration and new religious teachings. It will briefly analyse some of the benefits and how these still contribute to our society by improving this country. Furthermore, it will show that immigration has led to religious diversity making us a multicultural society. Britain nowadays is an extremely diverse country. There are people of different nationalities and religions all around us and we have learnt to adjust to their own ways and beliefs. With immigration we have embraced new changes: fashion, food, music and festivals. New religions have taught us to be a more tolerant society and become more accepting of other faiths. Some fashion is influenced through migrants, for instance the Hindu sari’s colours and style have helped shape the evening backless gowns. The burka however, still creates great controversy. Although there is a merging of fashion similarly fashion can also separate. It would seem people are judged by their sense of dress, whether they dress for cultural or religious reasons. Today there are even magazines in the media to help expand our knowledge of Islam. Most notably, the Emel is a British lifestyle magazine that reports on contemporary British Muslim culture. Launched in 2003, it was previously only available in Muslim bookshops. It has since become the most widely read British Muslim magazine in Britain and now attracts interest from non-Muslim readers too. As well as covering fashion it also informs on other aspects of life such as consumerism and politics, health and education. The whole aim of the magazine is to explain the positives aspects of Islam to non-Muslims and reduce fear and tension. (Emel, 20/05/2013) Another example of change in the fashion is that Indian people have brought with them their knowledge of threading, a method of facial hair removal, which is currently very popular amongst both women and men. One particularly striking aspect that affected Britain tremendously is new food. Immigration and religion have enriched Britain’s diet. These days there is a large variety of restaurants presenting foreign cuisines. We can have our pick of Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indian, Italian, Spanish, Mexican and many  others to suit our tastes. Amazingly, there are even some restaurants that of fer a mix of cultural gastronomy allowing us the luxury of selection and variation on the same plate. For some people these days, the Indian dish, the curry especially, is a favourite meal and most popular in Britain. In particularly, some people also choose to adapt a Mediterranean diet for health reasons. The food we consume is also determined by our religious beliefs. In Christianity, fish is eaten on Good Friday as a way of celebrating Jesus whereas in Islam and Hinduism, pork is out of the menu as the pig is seen as a dirty animal. Also in Hinduism, beef is not consumed as Hindus believe the cow is holy. British popular music also shows many influences from immigration. Immigrants have brought new musical sounds like reggae, ska and calypso. Black music, most notably RnB has had a lasting impact on British popular culture. Pop music is another indicator of the multicultural nature of Britain today. In most UK towns and cities it is possible for worshippers of Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam and many other religions to find somewhere to celebrate their faith in a community safely with others. The most known religious festivals in Britain are Christmas and Easter as part of Christianity. Eid is the second most important festival in the Muslim calendar. In the same way Christians celebrate Jesus at Christmas, Muslims celebrate Raham at Eid. Both events are about sharing, music, party and simply good fun. In Hinduism, Diwali is perhaps the most well-known Hindu festival. It is known as the ‘festival of lights’ and this five day festival honours Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. The Notting Hill Carnival in London is the largest street festival in Europe. It originated in 1964 as a way for Afro-Caribbean communities to celebrate their own cultures and traditions. It celebrates the abolition of slavery and freedom. It takes place every August Bank Holiday weekend and since festivals invite participation, every year people get together to enjoy this amazing, lively event and savour the Caribbean food on offer. On the whole, it is obvious immigration has brought significant benefits to Britain. Immigrants have enriched our society by working hard and creating jobs. They have offered us all the beneficial changes previously mentioned and we could no longer live without them. As a result, Britain is now a far  stronger society. Immigration has educated us to be more aware the ‘other’ making us open, tolerant, diverse and welcoming and this is something Britain should be proud of. BIBLIOGRAPHY Emel, http://www.emel.com/, (2O/05/2013) BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/islam/eid_haj.shtml, (20/05/2013) BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/hinduism/diwali.shtml, (20/05/2013) http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2013/03/25/david-cameron-immigration-speech-in-fullpolitics.co.uk, (20/05/2013)

Post Operative Outcome of Extended Nasolabial Flaps

Post Operative Outcome of Extended Nasolabial Flaps TITLE: Reconstruction of post release intraoral Oral Submucous Fibrosis defects by Extended Naso-Labial flaps versus Platysma myocutaneous muscle flaps: A Comparative Study. ABSTRACT- We compared post operative outcome of extended Nasolabial flaps with Platysma myocutaneous muscle flaps, in the management of 20 randomly selected patients with histologically confirmed oral submucous fibrosis. Patients and Methods: All patients in the study were treated by release of fibrous bands and bilateral coronoidectomy. In addition reconstruction was done in ten patients with extended nasolabial flaps (Nasolabial group) and in another ten patients with platysma myocutaneous muscle flaps (Platysma group). In the nasolabial group the mean preoperative interincisal mouth opening was 12 mm (range 3-14 mm) and in platysma group it was 11 mm (~ 3-13 mm). Vigorous post-operative physiotherapy was advised to all 20 patients and they were followed up for next 3 years .The interincisal mouth opening improved to 47 mm (~35-51 mm) in the nasolabial group and 48 mm (~ 41-52 mm) in the platysma group. Conclusion: Both the procedures were equally effective in management of oral submucous fibrosis in terms of postoperative interincisal mouth opening. However the facial extra-oral scars were not aesthetically acceptable in the nasolabial group, which were prevented when Platysmal myocutaneous muscle flaps were used for the reconstruction of post release oral submucous fibrosis defects. INTRODUCTION Oral submucous fibrosis is an insidious, chronic, disabling disease of obscure aetiology that affects the entire oral cavity, sometimes the pharynx and rarely the larynx. It is characterised by blanching and stiffness of oral mucosa, which causes progressive limitations of mouth opening and intolerance to hot and spicy food. It is an established precancerous condition which is seen mostly in the Indian subcontinent. Its precancerous nature was first described by Paymaster 1, who recorded the onset of slowly growing squamous cell carcinomas in one third of the patients. Murti et al, 2 reported the malignant transformation of oral submucous fibrosis. As the aetiology is uncertain, its treatment has largely been symptomatic and various treatments have been described vastly in literature with inconsistent results. In this study, two techniques for the closure of post release oral submucous fibrosis defects were compared. The importance of coronoidectomy was emphasised and two local flaps were used for reconstruction. We hypothecated that the platysma myocutaneous muscle flaps would be a better option than extended nasolabial flaps in terms of unaesthetic extraoral facial scars for the management of oral submucous fibrosis.3,4,5. PATIENTS AND METHODS Twenty consecutive patients who were treated at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, SDKS Dental College and Hospital, Hingna, Nagpur (18 men and 2 women aged between 18 to 41 yrs of age), were randomly selected for this retrospective study. The study was approved by the institutional ethics committee. No patient had preoperative interincisal opening more than 25mm. Following aseptic precautions, all patients were intubated using the fibreoptic bronchoscope and operated under general anaesthesia. Incisions were made using an electrosurgical knife from the corner of the mouth to the soft palate at the level of the linea alba avoiding injury to the Stenson’s duct. The bands were cut and the interincisal opening recorded. The coronoid processes were approached via the same incision and bilateral coronoidectomy or coronoidotomy was done. The maxillary and mandibular third molars were extracted. In the nasolabial group, extended nasolabial flaps as described by Borle et al 4, were raised for grafting from the tip of nasolabial fold to the inferior border of the mandible. The flaps were raised bilaterally in the plane of the superficial musculo-aponeurotic system from both terminal points to the region of the central pedicle. The diameter of the pedicle was roughly 1cm and it was distanced 1cm lateral to the corner of the mouth (Fig. 1). The flap was transposed intraorally through a small trans-buccal tunnel near the commissure of the mouth without tension. The inferior wing of the flap was sutured to the anterior edge of the defect, while the superior wing was sutured to the posterior edge of the defect. The extraoral defect was closed primarily in layers after liberal undermining of the skin in the subcutaneous plane to prevent any tension across the suture line. In the platysma group, a superiorly based platysma myocutaneous muscle flap was raised as described by D.A Baur 5 and used for reconstruction of the intraoral defects. With the neck hyper extended, the proposed skin paddle was outlined on the ipsilateral neck, below the inferior border of the mandible (Fig. 2). The superior incision was made first and the plane superficial to the platysma muscle was dissected carefully cephalic to the inferior border of the mandible. A skin incision was then made at the inferior line of the skin paddle, with additional exposure of the platysma muscle inferiorly. The platysma muscle was transected sharply at least 1cm inferior to the edge of skin paddle, and a subplatysmal plane of dissection developed just below the inferior border of the mandible. If the cervical branch of the facial nerve was to be incorporated, it was necessary to identify the nerve in the superficial layer of deep cervical fascia with careful dissection and preservation of its pr oximal portion. Once the plane of dissection was fully developed, the platysma myocutaneous flap was transected vertically, anteriorly and posteriorly for its full mobilisation. The flap was then introduced into the oral defect by creating an appropriately sized soft tissue tunnel. The harvested flap was sutured to the defect, which was created by release of the fibrous bands. The donor site was easily closed in layers, totally avoiding any unacceptable facial scar and obtaining by far a much better cosmetic result (as shown in Fig. 3b). A soft temporomandibular joint trainer was placed in the oral cavity post operatively for 10 days to prevent dehiscence of the flap, as result of occlusal trauma. After a latent period of 10 days, physiotherapy was started with the help of Hister’s jaw exerciser to prevent contracture and relapse. The patients were instructed about the exercises and mandated to do them for the next 6 months until they were followed up in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. We used the Student’s unpaired t test for statistical analysis of the study. RESULTS There were 2 groups of 10 patients each, one of which had nasolabial flaps, and the other platysma myocutaneous flaps.The differences in mouth opening were as shown in Table 1. All patients in nasolabial group developed extra-oral facial scars, compared with none in the platysma group. The differences in mouth opening before and after the surgery were almost similar in both groups (p) There were some complications in the nasolabial group including partial flap necrosis, particularly at the tips, temporary widening of oral commissure, unsightly extra oral scars as shown in (Fig. 3a), subluxation of the Temporomandibular Joint, perforation of the palate and intraoral growth of hair. In the platysma group, few patients developed temporary paraesthesia, which was noticed over the lateral cervical region, subluxation of the mandible and scars over the lower neck region which were usually covered by the shirt’s collar and not visible extra orally on the face. There were no delayed complications in the platysma group, but 2 patients in the nasolabial group had a â€Å"fish mouth† deformity, even after a year (Table 2). DISCUSSION The treatment of oral submucous fibrosis is mainly symptomatic, as the aetiology is not clearly understood and it is of progressive nature. Conservative treatments include multi-vitamins, iron supplementation and intra-lesional injections of hyaluronidase, placental extracts and steroids to name a few. Submucosal injections of various drugs may produce temporary symptomatic relief but can lead to aggravated fibrosis, pronounced trismus and increased morbidity from mechanical injury, secondary to the needle prick injury 6. Different treatment plans and surgical interventions have been proposed by various authors with variable success rates. Excision of fibrous bands and propping the mouth open to allow secondary epithelisation is known to cause rebound fibrosis during healing. The release of fibrous bands followed by split thickness skin grafting results in high recurrence rate following contracture. The survival of full thickness skin grafts is questionable. The use of an island palatal flap based on the greater palatine artery was recommended by Khanna et al., but has limitations including involvement of donor tissue with the limited reach of the flap, as well as the need to extract the maxillary second molar tooth, so that the flap is not under tension.7 The bilateral tongue flap causes severe dysphagia, disarticulation, and it carries unwarranted risk of aspiration. It also provides a limited amount of donor tissue as its reach is inadequate. The doubtful stability of tongue flaps and their dehiscence are the most common post operative complications caused due to uncontrolled tongue movements.8 Buccal fat pads may also be used to cover the defects after excision of fibrous bands and also as their harvest is simple. However in patients with chronic disease they are likely to be atrophic. In addition, the anterior reach of buccal fat pads is inadequate and thus the region anterior to the cuspids often is required to be left raw; which therefore heals by secondary intention and subsequent fibrosis, leading to gradual relapse. 9 Bilateral radial forearm flaps are hairy, and nearly half the patients require a secondary debulking procedure. Facilities for free tissue transfer are not universally available. 10 Caniff et al 11 recommended temporal myotomy or coronoidectomy to release severe trismus caused by the atrophic changes in the tendon of the temporalis muscle secondary to the disease. If the mouth opening was still less than 35 mm after bilateral fibrotomy, then for every case bilateral coronoidectomy was done, which increases the per-operative mouth opening. Complications like extra oral facial scars and intraoral growth of hair were common observation in our study when extended nasolabial flaps were used for reconstruction of defects. The patient’s compliance was not very good as far as facial aesthetics were concerned in the nasolabial group. These issues are taken care of when the platysma myocutaneous flap is harvested. The technique of platysma muscle flap however is more challenging as compared to that of extended nasolabial flap and needs to be mastered properly. CONCLUSION Surgical management of oral sub mucous fibrosis not only permits mouth opening but also facilitates the oral examinations for early detection and timely management of malignant transformation. This comparative study of Nasolabial flaps versus Platysma myocutaneous muscle flaps for reconstruction of intraoral post release oral submucous fibrosis defects emphasises on avoiding the extra oral facial scars in the patient. The postoperative mouth opening three years after surgery was comparable in both the techniques, however with better aesthetic outcomes in the platysmal group. We recommend the use of platysma muscle flap as compared to the extended nasolabial flap for reconstruction of the intraoral defects after release of oral sub mucous fibrosis .The facial aesthetics are not compromised in this technique. The risk of broadening of the commissure and pinched appearance of the lips are subsequently avoided. As the incision is far away from the face, and situated infero-laterally on the neck, the scars are hidden underneath the shirt’s collar, without hampering the facial aesthetics, avoiding an unsightly facial scar and ultimately resulting in better patient compliance and acceptance in today’s conscious society.

The Recluse Essay -- Literary Analysis

Wordsworth suffers solitude, even as he celebrates it. Alone, the poet can explore his own consciousness; it exists at both poles of the notion of ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’, and is the dominant developmental mode of Wordsworth’s childhood as depicted in The Prelude (1805). Independence is what is exalted in his introduction to that poem: he greets the ‘gentle breeze’ as a ‘captive†¦ set free’ from the ‘vast city’ which has been as a ‘prison’ to his spirit. The oppression of city living is alleviated in this opening reacquisition of isolation; the relief is evident: ‘I breathe again’, ‘that burthen of my own unnatural self [is shaken off], /The heavy weight of many a weary day/ Not mine, and such as were not made for me’. In this, the commencing statement of his autobiography, the independence of solitude is represented as the essential quality of his poetic felicity. T he ‘egoistical sublime’ observed by Keats is manifest in this poetry in a separation from other men, rather than in that of a Byron, whose narrators’ egotisms are evinced by their social interactions. Wordsworth’s company is nature; his sister, his wife, his children exist as assimilations rather than relationships. The sister of Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, is conjured into independence in the final paragraph, so as to exist as a previous self: ‘For thou are with me’, he suddenly reveals, ‘and in thy voice I catch/ The language of my former heart’. She is externalised when poetically useful; and it is by this externalisation that Wordsworth is able to avert and diminish his poem’s undercurrent doubts. ‘This prayer I make/ Knowing that Nature never did betray/ The heart that loved her’, has a contrary traction as a plea intimating des... ...this as his essential condition, but it is worth observing that ‘recluse’ does not imply total isolation. Wordsworth’s solitude, as he left childhood, was never again to be absolute; for as consciousness developed, so did his capacity to apprehend himself, in language, so even alone he could not be alone without self-intercourse, mediated by language. His solitude was necessary for his vocation, but his vocation trespassed on that solitude; for to be a poet is to cast experience away from the self: even in egotism, isolation is disrupted by the projection of an audience. Works Cited Gil, Stephen ed. William Wordsworth: The Major Works (OUP 1984) Hartman, Geoffrey Wordsworth’s Poetry 1787-1814 (Yale University Press 1971) Morgan, Monique R. ‘Narrative Means to Lyric Ends in Wordsworth’s Prelude’ (Narrative, Volume 16, Number 3, October 2008, pp. 298-330)

Classical Music Essay -- Music Musical Classical Essays

Classical Music n : traditional genre of music conforming to an established form and appealing to critical interest and developed musical taste [syn: serious music] Classical music, as the name suggests, is a well-established kind of music, at least in the West. Classical music concerts take place in every cultural center, and they take many forms, from a solo to large symphonic orchestras, from a sonata to an opera. This kind of music has many fans, especially among circles of intellectuals. But how did this great kind of music start? What made the great composers compose? And how was this all used before the time of recorded music and portable mp3 players? These are the questions we are going to examine today. Music historians place the beginnings of classical music in Europe during the 1730s, though there is not a clear cut-point, since it gradually evolved from the Baroque style that was dominant before. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Christoph Willibald Gluck are considered to be the founders of classical music. But what triggered this new kind of music? Ask a physicist, and the answer is quite clear: The new ideas of "natural philosophy", proposed in the late 17 th century by Sir Isaac Newton, suggested that the universe has a clear structure, well founded in axioms, articulated and orderly. These ideas were reflected in the music of the 18 th century, but also in architecture, literature, and the arts in general. This new style in the arts is referred to as "Classicism". Back in those days, music was not as common as it is now. One could not carry thousands of songs in one's pocket. Music was rather a privilege of the royalty and their court. For example, one of the most impor... ... it can be heard in parks, parking lots, train and underground stations. It can be found even in the pockets of people carrying mp3 players around. Young people listen to it, old people listen to it, babies listen to it. Classical music is not only a kind of music; it's a way to concentrate, to relax, to worship. Classical music is a way of life. Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_music_era http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Newton.html http://www.classical.net/music/links/musiclnk.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/422644.stm http://www.freenewmexican.com/artsfeatures/10701.html http://www.healingproducts.com/sound_health_series.htm#concentration http://www.freenewmexican.com/artsfeatures/10701.html http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/clipserve/B000001GDR001001/0/104-1287315-5901551

Martha Washington :: essays research papers

In 1633, the Reverend Rowland Jones came from England to the colony of Virginia. He had graduated from Oxford University and in Williamsburg had served as minister for fourteen years. Two generations later Martha Dandridge, his great-granddaughter, was born on June 2, 1731 on a plantation near Williamsburg. She grew up in the Dandridge home, Chestnut Grove. She enjoyed riding horses, gardening, sewing, playing the â€Å"spinet† and dancing. Her father made sure that she got a fair education in basic math, reading and writing...something girls didn’t receive at the time. At the age of eighteen, Martha married to Daniel Parke Custis. He was wealthy, handsome and twenty years older than her. Martha set up housekeeping on his plantation, while her husband managed the estate, which covered over 17,000 acres. Her husband adored his young, pretty bride and pampered her with the finest clothes and gifts imported all the way from England. They had four children, two who died before their first birthday. Their two surviving children John Parke, called "Jacky" and Martha, called "Patsy". In 1757, when Martha was twenty-six, Daniel Custis die d after a brief illness. Jacky was three and Patsy was less than a year old. Dying without a will, Martha was left with the duties of running the household, the estate and raising her children. (Fatherless children were usually "raised" under the care of a guardian, even if the mother survived--which meant that another male, primarily a relative, took care of the estates of the children). Her early education proved very helpful in the task. Her husband’s former business manager stayed to help with the operation of the plantation and she consulted with lawyers when she felt she needed it. Sometime later, Martha met a young colonel (several months younger than her) in the Virginia Militia at a cotillion in Williamsburg. His name was George Washington. Martha fell in love and George found her quite attractive. (That she had a good disposition and inherited wealth was an added bonus to the relationship). Martha married George on January 6, 1759. The marriage changed George from an ordinary planter to a substantially wealthy landowner. He had resigned his commission in the militia and so, George, Martha, Jacky who was 4, and Patsy who was about 2 moved into the remodeled Mt. Vernon. Martha was careful in running her home, although she and her husband did not pinch pennies when it came to caring for their home.

Oppressed Caribbean Culture Essay

Caribbean culture, in so far as it is conceded to exist, is at once the cause, occasion, and result of evolved and evolving paradoxes. The psychic inheritance of dynamic response to disparate elements interacting to find ideal, form, and purpose within set geographical boundaries over time could not have produced otherwise. The 1990s have witnessed no less of this, precisely because the decade serves to encapsulate contradictions in human development over the past half a millennium. The entire Caribbean, and indeed all of the modern Americas of which the Caribbean, like the United States, is only one part, are the creatures of the awesome process of cross-fertilization following on the encounters between the old civilizations of Europe, Africa, and Asia on foreign soil and they, in turn, with the old Amerindian civilizations developed on American soil long before Christopher Columbus set foot on it. It is a development that has helped to shape the history and modern condition of the world for some half a millennium and one that has resulted in distinctive culture-spheres in the Western hemisphere, each claiming its own inner logic and consistency. The Caribbean, at the core of which are a number of island nations, themselves in sub-regional groupings, is conscious of the dynamics of its development. For it rests firmly on the agonizing and challenging process actualized in simultaneous acts of negating and affirming, demolishing and constructing, rejecting and reshaping. Nowhere is this more evident that in the creative arts, themselves a strong index of a people’s cultural distinctiveness and identity. Admittedly, other indices of culture such as linguistic communication, which underpins the oral and indigenous scribal literatures of the region, religion, and kinship patterns, reveal the texture and internal diversity that are the result of cross-fertilization of differing elements. The result is an emerging lifestyle, worldview, and a nascent ontology and epistemology that all speak to Caribbean historical experience and existential reality, in some cases struggling to gain currency and legitimacy worldwide (and even among some of its own people) for being native-born and nativebred. For this is the original meaning of â€Å"Creole. † Whites born in the American colonies were regarded as â€Å"creoles† by their metropolitan cousins. And the Jamaican-born slaves were similarly differentiated from their â€Å"salt-water Negro† colleagues freshly brought in from West Africa. The term was soon to be hijacked by or attributed to the mulatto (half-caste) who defiantly claimed certified rootedness in the colonies–a status not as easily claimed by the person of African or European descent whose ancestry lay elsewhere, it was felt, other than in the Caribbean or the Americas. An understanding of the shared human thirst for freedom in terms of its cultural significance is critical. For the impulses that drive the Caribbean people (like people anywhere) to freedom within nation states, to the right to choose their own friends and political systems, and to independent paths to development are the same impulses that drive them to the creation of their own music, their own languages and literature, their own gods and religious belief-systems, their own kinship patterns, modes of socialization, and self-perceptions. All plans made for them from outside must take this fact into account, whatever may be the dictates of military and strategic interests or the statistical logic of tabulated growth rates and gross national products. The Caribbean people, faced as they are with the post-colonial imperative of shaping civil society and building nations, expect to be taken seriously in terms of their proven capacities to act creatively in coordinated social interaction over centuries in the Americas. They feel passionately that their history and experience are worthy of theory and explanation and expect others to understand and appreciate this fact. They are unique, paradoxically because they are like everybody else. The Caribbean has been engaged in freedom struggles and its inhabitants have been at the job of creating their own languages, and designing their own appropriate lifestyles for as long as and, in some cases, longer than most parts of what became the United States. Recognition of this and the according of the status due such achievement is a prized wish of all Caribbean people–Black, White, Mestizo, Indian (indigenous and transplanted), Chinese, and Lebanese. By general critical consent, the principal women writers in English to emerge, so far, from the Caribbean are the properly varied trio of Jamaica Kincaid (Elaine Potter Richardson) and Jean Rhys. I say â€Å"properly varied† because the immensely mixed political and social history of the Caribbean is reflected by and in its writers. Kincaid, the most experimental of the three, is seen by her admirers as a deliberate subverted of Dead White European Male modes of narrative. Yet any reader deeply immersed in Western literature will recognize that prose poetry, Kincaid’s medium, always has been one of the staples of literary fantasy or mythological romance, including much of what we call â€Å"children’s literature. † Centering almost always upon the mother-daughter relationship, Kincaid returns us inevitably to perspectives familiar from our experience of the fantasy narratives of childhood. Kincaid genuinely expresses her regard to Caribbean as those that have been â€Å"creolized† into indigenous form and purpose distinctively different from the original elements from which those expressions first sprang. With some of those original elements, especially those from a European source, themselves reinforcing their claims on the region, whether through politics, economic control, or cultural penetration, the Caribbean is becoming even more conscious not only of its own unique expressions but also of the dynamism and nature of the process underlying these expressions. These in turn constitute the basis for the claims made for a Caribbean identity. Jean Rhys, of Creole Dominican descent, is a formidable contrast to Marshall and seems to me the major figure to emerge thus far among Caribbean women writers. Though she lived mostly in Paris and England, the imagination of Rhys came fully alive in her novel of 1966, Wide Sargasso Sea, a remarkable retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre from the perspective of Bertha Mason, Rochester’s mad first wife. The terrifying predicament of the 19th-century Creole women of the West Indies, regarded as â€Å"white niggers† by colonialists and as European oppressors by blacks, is presented by Rhys with unforgettable poignancy and force. Shrewdly exploiting the modernist formal originalities of her mentor, Ford Maddox Ford, Rhys achieved a near masterpiece in Wide Sargasso Sea. Allusive, parodistic, and intensely wrought, the novel remains the most successful prose fiction in English to emerge from the Caribbean matrix. In Wide Sargasso Sea, the starting point is this placelessness. Although Rhys’s novel starts with Antoinette’s childhood in Coulibri, its boundaries lie outside the novel in another woman’s text. In Jane Eyre we have the madwoman Bertha locked up in the attic of Thornfield Hall. The significant title â€Å"Wide Sargasso Sea† refers to the dangers of the sea voyage. Rochester first crosses the Atlantic alone to a place which threatens to destroy him, then once more, bringing his new wife to England. Both Rochester and Antoinette are transformed through this passage. Rochester gives Antoinette a new name, Bertha, and in England she finally is locked up as mad. Rhys finds her own place in Jane Eyre, â€Å"a prisoner of another’s desire. † She sets out to describe that place and, in doing that, she redefines it as her own. In her challenge to Jane Eyre, Rhys draws on the collective experience of black people as sought out, uprooted, and transported across the Middle Passage and finally locked up and brutally exploited for economic gain. She uses this experience and the black forms of resistance as modes through which the madwoman in Jane Eyre is recreated. In the film version Wide Sargasso Sea develops stereotypes of Black West Indians that strongly mirror Bogle’s discussion of classic film depictions of African Americans. The inner stereotype in the film is that of the â€Å"tragic mulatto† which, the film hints, describes Angelique, the evidently White child who has been raised by Blacks. Although Angelique insists on her â€Å"Whiteness,† a menacing dark skinned stranger claims at diverse points in the film to be her brother through her father’s relationship with a slave. The viewer is left to consider whether the widowed plantation owner seen at the beginning of the film is actually Angelique’s mother. While it does not answer this question directly, it obviously shows through Angelique’s actions that her culture is far more African than European. These suspicions, actions, and Angelique’s reliance on the ex-slave Christophine ultimately destroy her marriage and drive her insane. Christophine, herself, fulfills the â€Å"mammy† role since the film portrays her as a constant presence who fiercely guards Angelique from all dangers. In the West Indian context, though, she is given a twist, as she is not only guardian angel but also a practitioner of the magical art of â€Å"obeah. † This portrayal — a staple of films dealing with the West Indies — is never completely developed. Nevertheless, the film permits us to witness its potency, as Angelique, despairing of keeping her husband’s love, calls on Christophine to develop a magical potion to bind his affections to hers. One opponent for those affections is Emily, a young Black servant who might well be characterized as a female â€Å"Black buck† — a sexual predator who seduces a married White man into interracial unfaithfulness. Finally, there is Nelson, the long-suffering head of the household who intimately approximates Bogle’s â€Å"Tom. In the film, insults of various sorts that are directed towards him result only in silence and a determination to remain a faithful servant. Though, in Dominican novelist Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), the island’s riotous vegetation and dramatic landscape are depicted with an ominous intensity that prompts the protagonist’s English husband to equate it with evil. Lally, the narrator of another Dominican classic, Phyllis Shand Allfrey The Orchid House ( 1953), faced with the menacing power the island’s nature exerts over Stella and Andrew, ruefully concludes that the island offered nothing but beauty and disease. Rhys’s protagonists, most evidently Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea, share a view of England as deadening, grey and emotionally destructive. England is a place of hypocrites, and the English have a ‘bloody, bloody sense of humour’. With a West Indian accent, she goes on, ‘and stupid, lord, lord’ (Wide Sargasso Sea: 134). But it remains Rhys’s place, the source of those English books which provided an early contribution to her construction of herself as writer. The idea of definitive national origin and affiliation is a source of anxiety for Rhys’s protagonists. For Rhys herself nationality was complicated by her exile and her race: also England did not value her Caribbean origins. For Rhys’s women, as perhaps for herself, England is also a place where human emotions, especially those associated with sexuality, are outlawed or repressed; she described sex in a letter of 1949 as a ‘strange Anglo-Saxon word’ (Abalos, David T. 1998, 66). Hemond Brown comments that Rhys’s attitude to England remained remarkably consistent over her whole writing career: ‘For those fifty-odd years, England meant to her everything she despised’ (Bandon, Alexandra. 1995). But despite this, she surely demonstrated in her characterisation of working-class English chorus girls and call girls and Rochester (perhaps informed by her important attachments to Lancelot Grey, Hugh Smith, Leslie Tilden Smith and Max Hamer, all upper- or middle-class Englishmen), that the poor Englishwoman and even the colonizing, socially secure Englishman have their own areas of serious emotional damage. She may have blown off steam sometimes, but in her fiction she took pains to be fair to the country which had both given her sustained literary identity and denied her dignity. In the Caribbean, complex racial narratives are the most powerful signifiers, although class increasingly reverberates now. In England, in Rhys’s lifetime, it was the class narrative which primarily constructed identity, though Rhys clearly writes the importance of race as a formative self-construction from her Dominican childhood. She sometimes sees race and class as equally important even in England, as in the case of Selina, who carries Rhys’s own outlaw status during an important period of her life. In the two explicitly Caribbean novels, Voyage in the Dark and Wide Sargasso Sea, race is evidently a major source of identity. Jean Rhys had long described the cultural dialectic of his region’s historical experience and contemporary reality in the following way: â€Å"But the tribe in bondage learned to fortify itself by cunning assimilation of the religion of the Old World. What seemed to be surrender was redemption. What seemed the loss of tradition was its renewal. What seemed the death of faith was its rebirth†. Caribbean existential reality is here portrayed as a creature of paradox. Surface appearances may well be masks for their opposites. What one sees is not likely to be what one gets. Other similar manuscript was in â€Å"Goodbye Mother† by Reinaldo Arenas, the grief inundated daughters Ofelia, Otilia, Odilia and Onelia kill themselves in front of their dead mum just for their cadavers to occasion a series of triumphant choruses from the legion of rats and maggots who feast on the putrefactory banquet. Neither of these authors, nor the evenly talented Rene Depestre and the former Dominican President Juan Bosch, is Anglophonic. It’s usually believed that the most excellent Caribbean literature in English consists of chronological polemics On the other hand Cristina Garcia novel â€Å"Dreaming In Cuban† tells the stories of the women of a Cuban family, scattered by revolution but still connected through a shared past. The narrative is polyphony of several voices who, in turn, describe their world from their viewpoint. Characters include Lourdes, an anti-Castro exile who runs a chain of â€Å"Yankee Doodle Bakeries,† and Felicia, whose perceptions connect and blur the lines between insanity and santeria. Pillar, Lourdes’s daughter and an aspiring punk artist, is determined to return to Cuba to reconnect with her grandmother and make her present life meaningful. She laments that history does not tell the important stories and longs to recover Cuba for herself: â€Å"[T]here’s only imagination where our history should be† (138). In the title of Dreaming in Cuban, â€Å"Dreaming† includes all the diverse dreams of Garcia’s female protagonists about the nature of being Cuban, what it is to be Cuban, to dream, not in American, but in Cuban. This necessitates Garcia’s taking into account all the conflicting elements of contemporary Cuban-ness for Cuban and Cuban American women. Amazingly, she never invalidates or disputes the diverse and conflicting perspectives of these different dreamers. She succeeds by giving readers a complexity of experience beyond binaries, where many diverse and conflicting perspectives circle around one another endlessly. These differences are constructed by differences in the various ideologies that the characters embrace communism, capitalism, traditional gender relations, voodoo, and feminism–and also by differences in their experiences due to varying historical locations in time and place.